If you want to feel old, this might do it: Madonna's daughter, Lourdes Ciccone Leon, has enrolled as a freshman at the University of Michigan.

Leon's choice of the same university her mother once attended is one of the milestones marked this year by the Beloit College Mindset List, a nonscientific compilation meant to remind teachers that college freshmen, born mostly in 1996, see the world in a much different way.

They've grown up with Facebook, selfies and web-based TV. And to them, watching cartoons has meant catching "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy" instead of Saturday morning fare.

The compilation, released Tuesday, has been assembled every year since 1998 by Ron Nief and Tom McBride, officials at the private college in southeastern Wisconsin. Over the years it has evolved into a cultural touchstone that entertains even as people wonder where the years have gone.

Here's a look at a few of the landmark events that took place around 1996, the year Leon and most of her incoming classmates were born:

Hello, Dolly

No. 23: Cloning has always been a fact, not science fiction.

Scottish scientists announced in 1997 that Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned animal, had been born the previous year. She'd been cloned using a process in which DNA was removed from one sheep's egg cell and replaced with genetic material from another sheep, and then implanted into a surrogate mother. Dolly was euthanized in 2003 after she developed lung disease.

Since then scientists have cloned more than a dozen kinds of mammals, including pigs and lambs.

Dolly's creation captured the public imagination and instantly became a scientific sensation, opening up a range of human therapeutic options but also raising serious questions about the ethics of cloning.

Casualty of browser wars

No. 46: They have probably never used Netscape for web browsing.

Netscape Communications helped popularize and commercialize the Internet during the mid-1990s with its Navigator web browser. Around the same time, Microsoft Corp. released the first version of its Internet Explorer browser, which it went on to integrate so tightly into Windows functions that many web users simply used Explorer by default. The U.S. Justice Department and several states ultimately sued Microsoft, accusing it of using its monopoly control over Windows to shut out competitors in other markets. The company fought the charges for years before settling in 2002.

Microsoft's strategy also contributed to another item on the Mindset List:

No. 37. Bill Gates has always been the richest man in the U.S.

The Microsoft co-founder has been the nation's wealthiest man for 20 straight years, and the richest in the world for 15 of those years. Forbes estimated his net worth at $72 billion last year, helped by a rebound in Microsoft's stock price. However, he believes in sharing the wealth. He has helped convince over 100 super-rich people to pledge to donate at least half their net worth to charity.

Women in sports

No. 32: Female referees have always officiated NBA games.

Violet Palmer broke barriers in 1997 when she became the first woman to referee an NBA game. She withstood plenty of scrutiny from her first tipoff, proving she could handle players' complaints and histrionics with professionalism. She has officiated playoff games and the 2014 All-Star Game.

In 2012, Shannon Eastin became the first woman to be an official in an NFL regular-season game when she was the line judge in a Rams-Lions matchup. Bernice Gera became the first woman to work in baseball's minor leagues in 1972 as an umpire in a New York-Penn League game. Pam Postema umpired major league spring training games in 1989 and Triple-A baseball for six seasons.

The Ebonics debate

No. 42: "African-American vernacular English" has always been recognized as a distinct language in Oakland, California.

A school board in Oakland sparked a national debate when it suggested that black English was a separate language. Although the board later dropped the suggestion amid criticism, it set off a discussion over whether African American vernacular English, also known as Ebonics, was a language, a dialect or neither.

The board's initial resolution called for conducting some instruction in Ebonics in recognition of its students' needs and upbringing. It eventually passed an amended resolution saying African-American languages were not mere dialects of English.

Congress debated the question hotly in 1997 but the issue faded away after a few months.

AIDS deaths vs. HIV infections

No. 39: While the number of Americans living with HIV has always been going up, American deaths from AIDS have always been going down.

More than 1.1 million Americans are believed to be infected with HIV, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number is increasing, in part because medical advances are helping people live longer.

More than 650,000 have already died since the AIDS epidemic began in the U.S. in 1981. The number of deaths peaked in 1995 at 50,877, but declined the following year as multidrug therapy and other treatments became available.

Beloit College's Mindset List for the Class of 2018

Most students entering college for the first time this fall were born in 1996. For these students, Tupac Shakur, Carl Sagan and Tiny Tim have always been dead.

1. During their initial weeks of kindergarten, they were upset by endlessly repeated images of planes blasting into the World Trade Center.

2. Since they binge-watch their favorite TV shows, they might like to binge-watch the video portions of their courses too.

3. Meds have always provided an option.

4. When they see wire-rimmed glasses, they think Harry Potter, not John Lennon.

5. "Press pound" on the phone is now translated as "hit hashtag."

6. Celebrity "selfies" are far cooler than autographs.

7. "The Daily Show" has always been the only news program that really "gets it right."

8. Hard liquor has always been advertised on television.

9. Ralph Nader has always been running for president of the U.S.

10. They never sat glued to Saturday morning cartoon shows but have been hooked on Fox's Sunday night "Animation Domination."

11. The water cooler is no longer the workplace social center; it's the place to fill your water bottle.

12. In their lifetime, a dozen different actors have portrayed Nelson Mandela on the big and small screen.

13. Women have always attended VMI and the Citadel.

14. Fox News and MSNBC have always been duking it out for the hearts and minds of American viewers.

15. Pepsi has always refreshed travelers in outer space.

16. Hong Kong has always been part of China.

17. Courts have always been overturning bans on same-sex marriages.

18. Joe Camel has never introduced one of them to smoking.

19. Bosnia and Herzegovina have always been one nation.

20. Citizens have always had a constitutional right to a "dignified and humane death."

21. Nicotine has always been recognized as an addictive drug requiring FDA oversight.

22. Students have always been able to dance at Baylor.

23. Hello, Dolly: Cloning has always been a fact, not science fiction.

24. Women have always been dribbling, and occasionally dunking, in the WNBA.

25. Ads for prescription drugs, noting their disturbing side effects, have always flooded the airwaves.

26. Hell has always been associated less with torment and more with nothingness.

27. Whether to embrace fat or spurn it has been a front-page debate all their lives.

28. Parents have always been able to rely on a ratings system to judge violence on TV.

29. They never tasted the "texturally enhanced alternative beverage" known as Orbitz.

30. There has always been "TV" designed to be watched exclusively on the Web.

31. The Unabomber has always been behind bars.

32. Female referees have always officiated NBA games

33. There has always been a national database of sex offenders.

34. Chicago, a musical about a celebrity getting away with murder, has always been popular on Broadway.

35. Yet another blessing of digital technology: They have never had to hide their dirty magazines under the bed.

36. Major League Baseball teams have always played in Mexico.

37. Bill Gates has always been the richest man in the U.S.

38. Attending schools outside their neighborhoods, they gather with friends on Skype, not in their local park.

39. While the number of Americans living with HIV has always been going up, American deaths from AIDS have always been going down.

40. They have no memory of George Stephanopoulos as a senior White House adviser.